The Early Muslim Conquests
by Jet556
Summary: A past lives story.
1. Chapter 1

**Dramatis Personae**

The Invulnerable Rostam, Spahbed of Adurbadagan (Randy's past life)

The Beautiful Fabia, Byzantine Empress Consort (Theresa's past life)

The Wily Hormuzan, an Iranian aristocrat (Howard's past life)

The Eunuch Staurakios, a Byzantine (Stevens' past life)

The Treacherous Nasr, Umayyad Governor of Khurasan (Niall's past life)

The Jealous Khalid, a Muslim military leader (Ken's past life)

 **Setting:** It is the final third of the Early Muslim Conquests. Fifty-four years have passed since the death of Muhammad, twenty-five years has ended since the fall of the Rashidun Caliphate. Now the Umayyad Caliphate continues the conquests of their predecessors in the name of expansion.

 **Chapter One**

It was absurd to ideate the earth deceasing on such a balmy fall day. Yet the storm of Muslim steeds continued to come through Europe leaving conquered cities and destroyed armies in their trails. Muhammad had never personally led the expansion but for those who lived in constant dread of Muslim armies conquering their lands, they wished the expansion had ended with Muhammad's death. For those who carried out the expansion, they wished it had ended with Muhammad's death as well.

Sons whose fathers had carried out the conquests before them found themselves tired of it as quickly as their fathers had been after over two decades of doing so. In Khurasan, Nasr sighed as he looked into a pond. In order to preserve his life against political rivals and general enemies Nasr had been forced to be treacherous.

"Whoever thought I'd be jealous of the dead." Said Nasr's companion Khalid. "If I ever see Al-Masjid an-Nabawai again, I'm going to take my entire force to sack it! Burn it to the ground! I curse the day that Gabriel visited Muhammad! If he had never unified Arabia into a single polity that required expansion I'm sure I'd be very happy right now."

"Don't let anyone hear you say that, Khalid." Commented Nasr.

"First defeat we get, I'm going to march over to the nearest Christian mosque and ask their clergyman to baptize me!" Khalid grabbed a rock. "Better Muhammad had remained a merchant!" He threw the rock into the pond. "Better Amr ibn Hisham or Abu Lahab or Umm Jamil had succeeded and Muhammad failed! I know then I wouldn't be sent marching off to conquer people I had never even heard of before! I'd be back in Mecca right now instead of here in Khurasan about to be sent away to fight the Iranians and Byzantines! The Iranians and Byzantines had never done me any harm, why must I now cause them harm?"

"Why does Muhammad having turned away from being a merchant vex you so?" asked Nasr.

"Because if he had remained a merchant this blasted expansion would never have happened!" exclaimed Khlaid. "In the past two years since I began my military career, I have grown tired of the whole thing. I hope that Rostam kills me in the coming conflict!"

"Yes, the invulnerable Christian." Acknowledged Nasr. "Do you really believe the stories?"

"I can only hope they are true." Confessed Khalid. "Then I might know defeat and I might be able to vanish from the Muslim world under a Christian name and be done with this whole conquest business! I could have been a trader buying slaves from the Norsemen and selling slaves to them. It would have been better than this endless parade of slaughter!"

"What should I tell Muawiyah should he ask of what happened to one of his military leaders shoulder you abandon us and turn Christian?"

"I don't care. Tell him I was carried away by Gabriel himself, tell him I fell screaming Muhammad's thrice accursed name, tell him I was thrown into a snake pit just tell the old fool something!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Rostam stood before Fabia while Hormuzan stood hidden in the garden watching them. While he was wily, Hormuzan was also jealous but not as jealous as Khalid was. He was jealous of the attraction shared between Rostam and Fabia but he was also worried. Fabia was the wife of the Byzantine emperor. Who knew how this would turn out?

Long ago, in the days of the Roman Republic, the Empire, the Western Roman Empire and the days when Leo I ruled the Byzantines, the Romans were more concerned with the continuity of the family name than with the bloodline. If a man recognized a child as his this was accepted by law and the issue of the child's biological father did not arise. If a child was not recognized, it could be exposed or brought up as a slave. Claudius had initially accepted a girl as his daughter but later rejected her and had her exposed. Emperors often adopted their successors. Aristocrats of those days and culture did not accuse others of being illegitimate. Caesarion, who along with his mother Cleopatra had been the last pre-Roman ruler of Egypt, had been the illegitimate son of Julius Caesar. How would a child of this love turn out these days?

While the eunuch Staurakios watched from another part of the garden, Hormuzan wondered if the eunuch could even be trusted. Who was he loyal to? Byzantium? The Emperor? The Empress? Who was Staurakios loyal to?


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

When the Muslims met the Byzantines and Iranians in battle, the forces met like the crashing together of great waves. Rostam was said to be invulnerable but yet he was among the first to die. An arrow to the heel had caused him to lose his footing and so Rostam fell and his head hit a rock. Thus did he die!

Despite Rostam's death, the Iranians and Byzantines emerged victorious. The Muslims were forced into retreat and Khalid was reported dead among the Muslims because he was not among those who had retreated.

In truth, Khalid did live. Stepping amongst the dead, he did look back and forth between Muslim, Byzantine and Iranian. There was really no difference. If they had been the conquerors would his fellow Muslims not been the ones fighting against them in defense of their lands?

Byzantines and Iranians were no less human or less civilized than they nor were they more. They were all human. Yet still the conquerors thought less of those they conquered. They was a select few conquerors who thought of the mixing of peoples so all might be one but Khalid had not met any.

So did Khalid wander a battlefield full of the dead! He was now free of his master's orders to conquer but now that he was free where did he start? Where was there a church for him to be baptized?


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

As the priest brought Khalid back into the water. Soon there was no longer Khalid. Now he was Yazdegerd.

Walking out of the river, Yazdegerd entered the church and saw Rostam's body while Fabia sobbed over it. He knew not Fabia, he merely knew Rostam. He only knew that Rostam had been the leader of the opposite army.

Yazdegerd then looked upon Hormuzan, looking up the scene before them. Soon Hormuzan was looking at him, Yazdegerd, as he stood there dripping water.

"Haven't I seen you somewhere?" asked Hormuzan.

"I do not know." Replied Yazdegerd. He had never seen Hormuzan before yet it then dawned on him that Hormuzan might have seen him in the battle. "I am just a Muslim that has become a Christian."

"Why would the conqueror wish to become one of the conquered?" asked Hormuzan.

"Because I am tired of conquest." Replied Yazdegerd. "I have been baptized. I have a new name I have been cleansed of past sins. I only want to live in peace."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Yazdegerd, once known as Khalid, sat not far from the river he had been baptized in. Born a Muslim, he was now a Christian but yet he knew there was difference between being a Muslim or being a Christian. There were Muslims that were Christians, there were Christians that were not Muslims, there were Muslims who were not Muslims and there were Christians who were not Christians.

Rostam was dead. He had not been a Christian he had learned. Rostam had been a follower of the Babylonian religion.

As for Fabia, she was a Christian. So a follower of the Babylonian religion and a Christian had fallen in love. One was unmarried and the other was the wife of the Byzantime Emperor. They were star-crossed, thwarted by bad luck.

Hormuzan, in contrast to his late friend Rostam, was a Buddhist. His sister was a Buddhist as well and Hormuzan spoke well of her for Yazdegerd's sake to give this new ally something worth fighting against the Muslims for.

Yazdegerd wanted no violence. He wanted no war. He merely wanted peace. He wanted to escape conquest and find a place where he might live untouched by war.

Then he saw Staurakios, that Byzantine eunuch. Fabia was with child. Rostam's child! If Staurakios were to report this to the Emperor, what would happen to the child?

Grabbing a large branch that had fallen nearby, Yazdegerd ran at the Eunuch and beat him until he lived no more. When all was done, he threw the branch into the river and then fell to his knees weeping.

"My first act as a Christian and I am a murderer. Oh, what is to become of me now?"

 **The End**


End file.
